Hello, my name is Evan Jaworski.  I am 17 years old, and I am in Angel Fire 4H club.  I am in my tenth year of 4H.  This year my 4H projects are chickens, ducks, market turkeys, and market geese.  I just graduated from High School, and this will be my final year in 4-H.  In August I will start attending classes at the Independent Electrical Contractor association and find an apprenticeship so that I can start my journey to becoming an electrician.  4-H has been a part of my life for so long, I truly appreciate all the opportunities and experiences that I have had over the years and will truly miss it.  I know this last year will provide lifelong memories.

I have 4 broad breasted white turkeys, and plan to bring 2 to the fair.  I have both hens and toms, but I have had better success with hens in past years, so I am focusing on them this year.  I have currently separated them from the toms because the toms compete with the hens for food.  By separating them, the hens have a better chance to achieve market weight.  I usually feed turkey starter for the first six weeks, which is 28% protein, and then move down to a grower and finisher feed which contain less protein.  This year I have kept the hens on starter feed to help them gain weight at a healthy rate.  The toms are now on chicken layer crumble which is 16% protein because they grow so much faster than the hens.  I will watch their weight and conditioning over the next few weeks to make sure I bring the best birds to the fair.  The most expensive cut of meat on a turkey is the breast meat, and that is followed by the legs and thighs.  Because of this I will choose the bird that has the greatest width of breast that continues through the whole body.  You do not want breast meat that tapers down to a point near the legs of the bird.  I will then look at the quality of the leg conditioning on the birds and make sure that the combination of breast and leg meat is the best possible.

I look forward to meeting you at El Paso County Fair.  The junior livestock auction will be held on July 20th at 1:00. Thank you for allowing me to share my projects with you and thank you for supporting 4H.